So now I’m asking suggesting what you can do for Climate Progress: Spread the word!

In the wake of the Tom Friedman column last Sunday calling CP “the indispensable blog,” I had a big (40%) jump in readership (see full stats below).

I’d like to keep the new readers — and expand further. On my end, that means keeping up both the quantity and quality of posts.

On your end, I’m hoping regular CP readers will reach out and try to get me one new reader each, someone that you know is interested in the subject, preferably someone in the persuadable category. Right now, the global warming deniers and their allies are a lost cause (see “Hill conservatives reject all 3 climate strategies and embrace Rush Limbaugh“), and we need to focus on the vast middle.

A couple of people have asked me what the impact of Friedman’s column was.

In the week that started last Sunday when his column was published and ended Saturday (yesterday), I had 92,000 visits (~13,000 a day) and 334,000 page views (~48,000 a day). Those figures come from Urchin 6 Web Analytics (from Google).

That is a 40% jump from the previous week.

Sadly, I wasn’t paying close attention to the subscribers to my RSS feed, and I don’t know a way to go back and find out what they were last Saturday. But I think they are also up about 40%.

[Note: If you are already a regular reader but aren’t a subscriber yet, then click here!]

Given the turnover that is inevitable for any blog, I’d be quite delighted to just hold on to the level of new readership from last week.

Remember, with Climate Progress, you don’t pay a subscription, you only have to look at one ad, and there are no annoying pledge breaks every few months!

Like Climate Progress on Facebook

10 Responses to Ask not what Climate Progress can do for you

I send relevant articles to colleagues regularly, and have bookmarked your site. Why is it preferable for you to have “subscribers?” For counting purposes? I prefer to “subscribe” to as little as possible online…
I’ll keep reading and sending off your gems, though! Your articles so clearly explain many complex and obtuse issues. –joyce

Joe,
I’ve gotten you at least 3 new viewers (my family members) and have begged practically all of my friends to pay ClimateProgress some attention. The problem is that, at least with my friends and family, you’ll be preaching to the choir. Have you considered starting up a facebook group? I assume young people are a particularly sought after target audience.

Joe,
I’m one of the new 40%, thanks to Tom Friedman’s piece. Reading your posts–and passing them on–has become part of my daily routine. Those of us without the time and knowledge base to read the scientific articles appreciate your efforts at condensation and clarification.
I will pass on ClimateProgress every chance I get.
Thanks.

Building readership on the web is something I’ve had quite a lot of experience with at multiple points in my career — at ScienceBlogs, at Seed and at Scientific American.

The most important thing is quality content (check) and a rich internal linking structure (check). The next most important thing is probably syndication. I know you already syndicate to Grist — but you’d be surprised how many websites out there would be happy to have more free content.

You could:

1) Start specifically releasing all your posts under a creative commons / attribution license, and make them freely available to any website that wants to use them, as long as they keep the links that are already in your posts intact (this will keep readers clicking through back to climateprogress.org)

2) Approach sites you like (besides Grist) and offer them your content, free, under exactly these terms (Treehugger, Ecogeek and others come to mind — not as high-brow as Grist, but they certainly reach a mass audience)

This strategy works quite well for many for-profit outlets (and you don’t have to worry about that, so you’re in an even better position). Here are some examples:

E magazine syndicates content all over the web in the form of their “EarthTalk” column, e.g.

Again, all these relationships do not, to the best of my knowledge, involve anything other than one party offering free content to another, and both benefitting because the hosting site is always happy to have more high-quality content and the party syndicating benefits from increased awareness and traffic from the links already embedded in the content.